See _Pierce Plowman_, where one of the rats proposes that a bell should be hung about the cat’s neck. Sig. A iii. ed. 1561; and Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 85. ed. 1768. Page 317. v. 166. _to play deuz decke_] An allusion, I suppose, to some game. v. 167. _for the becke_] i. e. to obey the nod of command. v. 169. _Moche herted_] i. e. Much hearted. v. 178. _combred_] i. e. encumbered. Page 318. v. 181. _Sho the mockysshe mare_] So in our author’s _Why come ye nat to Courte_; “And _Mocke_ hath lost her shoo.” v. 83. vol. ii. 29. v. 182. _wynche and keke_] i. e. wince and kick. v. 183. _not worth a leke_] An expression not uncommon in our early poetry: “No fallow _wourth ane leik_.” G. Douglas’s _King Hart_,—Pinkerton’s _An._ _Scot. Poems from Maitl. MSS._ i. 42. “Such loue I preise not _at a leke_.” Chaucer’s _Rom. of the Rose_, fol. 130,—_Workes_, ed. 1602. v. 190. _Amende whan ye may,_ _For, usque ad montem Sare,_ _Men say ye can not appare_] —_appare_, i. e. impair. The meaning of this passage,—in which (as I have already noted _ad loc._) it seems probable from a comparison of the MS. and the printed copies, that Skelton used the forms “Seire” and “appeire,”—is—Amend when ye may, for it is said by every body, even as far as Mount Seir, that ye cannot be worse than ye are. The Latin words are a quotation from the Vulgate: “Et circuit de Baala contra occidentem, _usque ad montem Seir_.” _Josue_, xv. 10. v. 194. _hauke on hobby larkes_] See notes, p. 258. v. 1358. p. 262. v. 1582. v. 195. _warkes_] i. e. works. v. 198. _The gray gose for to sho_] Hoccleve uses this proverbial expression; “Ye medle of al thyng, ye moot _shoo the goos_.” _Poems_, p. 13. ed. 1796. and Heywood has the following Epigram; “_Of common medlers._ ”He that medleth with all thing, may _shoe the gosling_. If all such medlers were set to goose shoing, No goose need go barefoote betweene this and Greece, For so we should haue as many goose shoers as geese.” Sig. P 2,—_Workes_, ed. 1598. See also Davies’s _Scourge of Follie (Prouerbs)_, n. d. p. 175. Page 319. v. 209. _pranes_] i. e. prawns. v. 211. _werynge_] i. e. wearing. v. 213. _ne peason_] i. e. nor peas. v. 214. _loke to be let lose_] i. e. look to be let loose. v. 215. _gose_] i. e. goose. v. 216. _Your gorge not endewed_ _Without a capon, &c._] Equivalent to—You not digesting any thing except, &c.: see notes, p. 207. v. 78. and v. 87. v. 218. _a stewed cocke_] Compare the following passage in the _Interlude of the iiii Elementes_, n. d.; “_Tauerner._ Though all capons be gone what than yet I can get you _a stewed hen_ That is redy dyght. _Humanyte._ yf she be fat yt wyll do well. _Tauerner._ Fat or lene I cannot tell But as for this I wot well She lay at the stewes all nyght.” Sig. B. vi. v. 219. _To knowe whate ys a clocke_ _Vnder her surfled_ [MS. _surfuld_] _smocke_]